Meet the Trainers – Dana

DANA JACKSONCharter Fitness of Tinley ParkISSA Certified Personal TrainerB.S. Psychology from the University of IllinoisB.S. in Dietetics -in progress

If I wasn’t a personal trainer I would be… I honestly can’t come up with any other job I would want to do; I love everything about training, especially the transformations people make from the inside out. It makes me feel happy and completely fulfilled every single day.

In my fantasy world though, I’d probably be a back up dancer because as everyone at the gym could probably tell you, I love to dance it out!

The person I admire most is… Actually there are three, my kids. I think the best qualities you can find in a person are genuine positivity, happiness, enthusiasm and optimism in all aspects of life. It’s rare to find people who fit those criteria. When I look at my kids I see all of these things and I admire that a lot.

What celebrity would you love to train… I would have loved to train the late Patrick Swayze. My favorite movie of all time is Dirty Dancing and I have always admired the level of fitness it took to dance the way he did. And most importantly, if I trained him, I could probably fulfill my lifelong dream of being put into the lift.

What music is on your workout playlist…I love music – I love ALL of it! On my playlist you will find music from Katy Perry and Rihanna, country music like Kenny Chesney and Eric Church, soundtracks from movies (like Footloose), Aerosmith, Nickelback, Eminem…. If you can dance to it, I probably listen to it.

Where’s Waldo…I’m not sure where Waldo is… but if I were Waldo, you would find me spending time at the park with my kids, showing off my pull-up skills on the monkey bars.